LA LECON

LA LECON

From 09/03 to 09/03.

Theatre: *The Lesson*, Tuesday 9 March 2027 at 6.30 pm by Eugène Ionesco. Company: La Criée Théâtre National Marseille. Co-production: Le Préau-CDN de Vire, Châteauvallon-Liberté scène nationale, Théâtre National de Nice. Directed by: Robin Renucci. Cast: Christine Pignet, Robin Renucci, Inès Valarcher. Set design: Samuel Poncet. Lighting: Sarah Marcotte. Costumes: Jean-Bernard Scotto. A young pupil settles in for a private lesson. At first, the situation seems perfectly natural. The teacher teaches, she learns; the routine is repeated. But the rhythm soon breaks down. The instructions quicken, the tone becomes strained, laughter freezes, and the lesson takes a turn: the pupil becomes the object of a power that brooks no challenge. In *The Lesson*, Ionesco reveals the hidden face of authority. It is no longer merely the absurdity that strikes the reader, but the disturbing drift of knowledge that ceases to emancipate and instead subjugates. The Teacher and the Pupil embody the tension between education and domination, in a space where every word becomes an instrument of control. Eugène Ionesco was born in 1909 in Romania. His father was Romanian and his mother was of French origin. In 1911, the family moved to Paris. In 1916, Germany declared war on Romania and Ionesco’s father returned to Bucharest, leaving his family behind. Eugène and his sister stayed with farmers in Mayenne. Ionesco recalls this period in his diaries (and indirectly in one of his plays) as a moment suspended in time, one of pure joy. In 1922, they had to join their father in Bucharest and it was then that they learnt Romanian, a language they had not previously known. Their mother joined them later. Ionesco discovered the poetry of Tristan Tzara and the Surrealists. He enrolled at the University of Bucharest, where he studied for a degree in French. He met Rodica Burileanu, a student of philosophy and law. She would become his wife in 1936.